In general, financial institutions have automated most check processing systems by printing financial documents, such as account numbers and bank routing numbers onto the checks. Before a check amount is deducted from a payer's account, the amount, account number, and other important information must be extracted from the check. The highly automated form of extraction is done by a check processing control system that captures information from the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (“MICR”) line. The MICR line consists of specially designed numerals that are printed on the bottom of a check using magnetic ink. The MICR data fields include the bank routing number, bank transit number, account number, check serial number, check amount, process code and extended process code.
Signature validation systems, such as described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/009,252, 11/008,893, 11/009,251, 11/204,909, and 11/249,788, may be employed to validate the authenticity of a signature on a financial document such as a check. The contents of these patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. These signature validation systems comprise computer software programs for detecting fraudulent checks and verifying non-fraudulent checks at various points of presentment such as teller stations and retail stores.
The signature area on many checks and other documents frequently includes extraneous writing such as machine-printed text (e.g., various citations and stamps such as “Authorized Signature”). The presence of machine-printed text and other extraneous writing puts an extra burden on signature validation systems, such as described above, since the extraneous writing comprises noise which distorts the resultant confidence score.
In view of the above drawbacks, there exists a need for a system and method of processing financial documents involving the automatic removal of machine-printed text from the signature area.